I don't think you can insinuate that I want to lock up all the crazies. I said it was my hope that these cases would bring more awareness and less stigma to mental illness and hopefully more understanding and more help. I happen to think anyone who commits murder or rape or molests a child does have some form of mental illness. So in a sense yes blame the illness. That doesn't mean I think it is a defense or that people are not responsible for their actions. It is true that abusers were most often abused themselves. I am certainly not an expert on the psychology of crime and punishment but you can't really say the prison system does anything to help people, that it has any compassion. All it does is breed hardened criminals. Someone who is a teenager gets in a gang and deals drugs and then gets caught up in the criminal justice system is basically screwed for life. Maybe there is a way the justice system could help that kid before the prison system turns him into a hardened criminal in the shoe in Pelican Bay.

I certainly don't advocate forced treatments and that whole movement. That is just crazy talk in my opinion. I do advocate more understanding and more help. And more research on what will help more effectively.

For the anti med crowd to blame it on the meds is almost as bad as the forced treatment crowd trampling on human rights.